Jackson State
We hear a lot about airport security measures on the news, but homeland security is much more than travel safety. And evidence of that is the wide range of homeland security research projects underway at Jackson State University (JSU).Federal research grants position the university as a major contributor to the U.S. response to terrorism and natural disasters, said Dr. Felix Okojie, JSU vice president for research and federal relations.
“The grants provide needed resources to facilitate intellectual capital exchange with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Science and Technology to help solve real-time homeland security challenges facing the nation,” Okojie said. “The grants facilitate engagement of students, faculty and research staff in their educational and professional pursuits. For the students in particular, the grants facilitate the training of the current and next generation homeland security workforce. The grants also provide employment for Mississippians and others that help spur economic development for the state.”
Okojie said different DHS research grants at JSU range from the development of a Disaster Response Intelligence System (DRIS) to workforce development for current and future DHS workers.
Dr. Gordon W. Skelton, director of JSU’s Center for Defense Integrated Data (CDID), and principal investigator for DRIS, said their research applies intelligent decision-support for emergency management in the areas of disaster response, search and rescue, risk assessment, evacuation planning and resource management.
“Employing GIS and logic, a comprehensive system is being developed that can be used by emergency management agencies at the local, regional and state levels for disaster response,” Skelton said. “Elements of the system provide for the fusion of data from multiple sources and can be used to identify areas and persons at-risk from both natural and manmade disasters.”
The system supports the use of handheld devices for data collection, integrating that data with a variety of other heterogeneous sources. Analyzing that data, DRIS provides emergency management with rapid, real-time analyses and reporting. The system supports such disaster scenarios as storm surges, flooding and chemical spills.
“At present, DRIS has been deployed for field testing in Hancock County, the epicenter of Hurricane Katrina,” Skelton said. “Additional scenarios are being developed that will be used in Newton and other counties in Mississippi. The system is designed to be applicable for any location and in a variety of different situations.”
Skelton emphasized that the system will benefit the country in the saving of lives and in the management of limited resources.
JSU has a related grant that will help bring technology to first responders for use in planning, mitigation, response and recovery in the face of man-made and natural disasters.
“The National Center for Biodefense Communications (NCBC) research is a geospatially-centric, common operating picture for use by first responders, in all levels of service, that represents a major capacity expansion in JSU’s GIS research arm,” said Edward R. Collins, associate director, NCBC. “The system is an All Hazards Emergency Operations Management System (ALLHAZ) that is scalable for any size hazard, easily deployed and maintained by field personnel, and able to use a variety of hardware platforms to take advantage of existing first-responder inventories.”
The innovative, computer-based system being developed by JSU will give first responders what they require the most: the ability to adequately and easily communicate and access vital emergency operations information across agencies and jurisdictions while in the field.
“Historically, automated systems have been designed to support one type of disaster and are not very robust when faced with multifaceted, complex emergency situations,” Collins said. “The responder does not have time to become fluent in the many different systems that are required to manage many different situations. This ends in the first responder opting to take notes the old-fashioned way and often not sharing essential information during large scale responses because of geographic separation, inconvenience or competing priorities.
“ALLHAZ remedies this shortcoming because it is designed to be used by all first responders or first responder teams, in the field. ALLHAZ offers the ability to handle the common core elements of every disaster such as perimeters, hot spots, traffic access, escape routes, positioning of resources, triage locations, command post locations and landing zone designations in exactly the same manner every time.”
Another disaster-related grant at JSU is one designed to link science and technology in the mitigation of future natural disasters in the Gulf Coast region.
Dr. Shahrouz Aliabadi, director of the Northrop Grumman Center for High Performance Computing, said researchers at JSU are joining with the University of Houston, the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center, Iteris, Inc., and Digital Rocket Science, LLC in a project designed to develop a fully-integrated framework for the modeling and simulation of storm surge and flood events.
“This project is comprised of three components: High-resolution storm surge and flood modeling, infrastructure assessment and resiliency and disaster preparedness and response,” Aliabadi said. “The proposed project employs existing flood, assessment and management (FAM) models and new FAM models developed by project partners, with intended application to the forecasting of hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, flood inundation in associated coastal regions, infrastructure assessment and disaster preparedness and response in an integrated framework.”
The development of technology capable of mitigating surge and flood disasters would be of great significance to national homeland security in the area of emergency preparedness and response. The project proposes a detailed plan-of-action which involves the development of a fully-integrated ensemble modeling suite of linked storm surge, flood inundation, infrastructure assessment and disaster preparedness and response models that will not only benefit Mississippi, but the entire Gulf Coast.
“This linking mandates the development of novel interface technology to facilitate data transfer between models and information cataloging techniques to store and access solution data,” Aliabadi said. “Such an endeavor will require the expertise of scientists and researchers in the areas of atmospheric, ocean, wave and fluid-structure modeling and simulation, high performance computing, geographic information systems, traffic management and simulation, evacuation planning, structural modeling and simulation, remote sensing, information technology, communication systems and computer science.”
He added that the development and successful implementation of the project will allow for a holistic approach to flood forecasting, infrastructure assessment and emergency planning that can significantly aid decision-makers and first responders in preparation for the appropriate response to an impending disaster.
Another important homeland security program at JSU is the Biodefense Career Development Program. This program integrates competitive undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships with didactic instruction, mentored broad-based interdisciplinary research training, short-term internships and a one-year service commitment at external bio-defense facilities.
“These integrated activities are designed to prepare students for long-term employment in positions relevant to homeland security,” said Raphael Isokpehi, assistant professor of environmental science. “The program will equip students with knowledge and skills for careers in the following bio-defense technology areas: agricultural security; biological threat, characterization, bio-forensics operations, bio-security, knowledge management and dissemination, law enforcement, sensors and signatures, surveillance and response and systems engineering and analysis.”
Homeland security is going into K-12 schools with another JSU program, called the Mathematics and Homeland Security Academy, a two-week program for K-12 teachers in Mississippi.
“Last summer, the academy explored calculus, discrete mathematics and mathematical modeling,” said Edna L. Holbrook, assistant professor of mathematics. “These topics were integrated into homeland security topics for the classroom. This past summer materials were designed to acquaint teachers, students and university faculty with the threat and impact of the Avian Flu. The materials produced in the workshop will assist individuals in preventing and preparing for threats such as the Avian Flu.”
Holbrook said the academy programs contribute to the security of the community by making K-12 students, teachers and, indirectly, parents, aware of the importance of threats
and warnings issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It also assists JSU in providing a safe and secure environment for its students and faculty, by preparing the community and the university to deal with disasters and threats.
You may contact Becky at bgillette4@cox.net.